A biological target of current interest is histone deacetylase (HDAC) (see, for example, a discussion of the use of inhibitors of histone deacetylases for the treatment of cancer: Marks et al. Nature Reviews Cancer 2001, 7, 194; Johnstone et al. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 2002, 287). Post-translational modification of proteins through acetylation and deacetylation of lysine residues plays a critical role in regulating their cellular functions. HDACs are zinc hydrolases that modulate gene expression through deacetylation of the N-acetyl-lysine residues of histone proteins and other transcriptional regulators (Hassig et al. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 1997, 1, 300-308). HDACs participate in cellular pathways that control cell shape and differentiation, and an HDAC inhibitor has been shown to be effective in treating an otherwise recalcitrant cancer (Warrell et al. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 1998, 90, 1621-1625).
Eleven human HDACs, which use Zn as a cofactor, have been identified (Taunton et al. Science 1996, 272, 408-411; Yang et al. J. Biol. Chem. 1997, 272, 28001-28007. Grozinger et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1999, 96, 4868-4873; Kao et al. Genes Dev. 2000, 14, 55-66. Hu et al. J. Biol. Chem. 2000, 275, 15254-15264; Zhou et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci U.S.A. 2001, 98, 10572-10577; Venter et al. Science 2001, 291, 1304-1351) and these members fall into three classes (class I, II, and IV) based on sequence homology to their yeast orthologues (O. Witt et al. Cancer Letters, 2009, 277, 8-21). Class I HDACs include HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC3, and HDAC8, and are referred to as “classical” HDACs, which implies a catalytic pocket with a Zn2+ ion at its base.
There remains a need for preparing structurally diverse HDAC inhibitors, particularly ones that are potent and/or selective inhibitors of particular classes of HDACs and individual HDACs.